Study Tests Effectiveness of Mailing Formats

What happens when you create a marketing promotion from a fictitious travel agency to test the effectiveness of different mailing formats? RAPP Germany, a multichannel marketing agency, hired Neilsen to find out.
With all other factors equal, RAPP wanted to know, which techniques would be most successful? It tested five mailing formats: standard envelopes, printed envelopes, self-mailers, wrappers, and email. It found that envelopes have a tremendous impact on the effectiveness of the direct marketing piece, especially if they are personalized.
According to the study, while custom-manufactured envelopes have the highest open rate of all of the marketing techniques tested (85%), personalization is key to success. For example, recipients who received non-personalized mailings were three times more likely to throw the mail in the trash or delete it than recipients who received a personalized mailing.
Even when recipients were predisposed to the marketing message, recipients of personalized messaging were more likely to indicate that they intended to investigate the travel offer further. Forty-four percent of those receiving the personalized mailings said they would investigate the travel offer compared to 37% of those who received static mailings.
Mailings received via a personalized, printed envelope were also more likely to be passed along to friends and family. According to the survey, marketing messages mailed in personalized envelopes were twice as likely to be passed along to others (14% vs. 8%) than personalized emails.
Want to increase your response rates? Personalize your message inside and out!Source: “Consumers Value Physical Mail, Even In This Digital Era,” Print in the Mix (www.printinthemix.com)